How Change Can Spark Joy for Information Professionals

Early this year, a wave of decluttering swept the nation, thanks to the Netflix series chronicling Marie Kondo's cheerful approach to living with less. The essence of the KonMari method, as it is known, is about ridding yourself of anything that doesn't “spark joy”—and it sparked a movement that rapidly overwhelmed thrift stores as Americans cast away years of accumulated goods.

Some Konverts, having enthusiastically decluttered their houses, started looking around their offices, ultimately asking whether some of their least-favorite aspects of work were worth keeping. Now, of course, it doesn't always make sense to jettison uninspiring yet helpful implements. You may not adore a utilitarian tool like a mop, but it can still spark joy if you appreciate the result it provides.

As legal information professionals who spend a lot of time encouraging and promoting change in the workplace, we got to wondering: Do we have to keep our change initiatives around because they are like mops, giving us the “clean floors” of improved and more efficient processes?

Or could change itself spark joy?

People Don't Necessarily Hate Change

We hear all the time about how much people hate, fear or at least resist change. Gartner reports that only 34 percent of organizational change initiatives represent a “clear success,” while fully half are categorized as a “clear failure.”

But there is an aspect of change that people decidedly don't hate: self-improvement. Research and Markets has valued the U.S. self-help industry at $9.9 billion. (In fact, Kondo's bestselling book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, falls under the self-improvement umbrella.)

What differentiates the change we hate from the improvement we love?

1. It is called self-help for a reason: We're in charge of the changes we make in our own lives as opposed to the brute force that many organizations use to force change upon employees.

2. Improvement exclusively focuses on moving in a positive direction, while change might be for the better, for the worse or—all too often—just for the sake of change.

3. We are inspired to improve ourselves because we can envision the benefits we will reap. Boost your work productivity and you'll have more time to golf. Enhance your management skills and you'll have a shot at that promotion—and the bigger paycheck it comes with. Change initiatives at work, by contrast, often inspire the fear of drudgery or even impending job loss.

Change is also frustrating because—although we hear that “change is constant”—we resent that it is never “done.” Improvement, on the other hand, is understood to be ongoing. We know that there is room to improve on anything: Even if something is already great, it could always be better.

All of this is good news for information professionals, because the very point of our work is improvement. We collect the knowledge that employees can choose to engage with, knowing that it will drive better results and create benefits.

The question is, how do we repackage the dreaded “change” as an “improvement” that can spark joy across our entire firm?

Ways to Reframe Change as a Positive

Build trust—and joy—by engaging with people. In his article on “Leading From the Library,” Steven Bell notes that it takes trust to inspire others to change and then lead that change. That trust is not automatic, but it can be built by engaging authentically with our colleagues. Margaret J. Wheatley noted the same in her book, Turning to One Another, observing that “Truly connecting with another human gives us joy.” Reach out and speak with people directly to start establishing the trust that will allow change to take root.

Listen to what people say. As you engage with lawyers in your firm, take a tip from that venerable pundit, Vanilla Ice: “All right stop, collaborate and listen.” Sure, he made some poor career moves, but he got this part of it right. If you want a change initiative to have any hope of working, you cannot just talk about how great it is. You must also address the concerns of those affected by the change—and that starts with going out and hearing about those concerns firsthand.

Focus on employee happiness. Organizations that prioritize the happiness of their teams have a leg up on creating successful change. Tap into the power of the self-improvement industry by helping your employees see change as an opportunity for personal growth. Leverage the distinctions that make improvement so appealing by giving employees a sense of control over coming changes, an understanding that changes are aimed at producing better results and an appreciation for the benefits that will ensue.

Change doesn't have to inspire a sense of concern, reluctance or dread. In fact, when you approach change with engagement, attentive listening and a focus on happiness, it can spark joy—which means you will definitely want to keep it around.

Kris Martin serves as a senior director in the Strategic Sourcing + Business Optimization practice within the Advisory business at HBR Consulting. Kris is passionate about the evolving modern law firm and uses proven expense and change management methodologies to deliver advisory and innovative cost reduction solutions for clients across a variety of industries.

Colleen Cable serves as a director in the Strategic Sourcing + Business Optimization practice within the Advisory business at HBR Consulting. She supports clients by bridging the gap between libraries and law firms and develops cutting edge solutions that satisfy both groups.